Coventry City Under-18s 4 Shrewsbury Town Under-18s 3 (gallery)

TWO goals either side of the break saw Coventry City’s Under-18s through to the second round of the FA Youth Cup last night and book their place away to either Oldham or Accrington.

But it was far from an easy passage as Shrewsbury mounted a second-half fightback at the Ricoh Arena, pegging the Sky Blues back three times to set up a nervous six minutes of stoppage time when the home side hung on to avoid the tie going to extra-time.

Midfielder Jack Finch got City underway just after the half-hour with a well-directed header from a poor Town clearance before the lively Louis Garner doubled the lead just before the interval with a fine solo effort to round off a dominant opening 45 minutes when Ian Foster’s boys played with freedom and confidence on the ball.

Full-back Ryan Haynes was a useful outlet on the left and forced the visiting goalkeeper to save when centre-back Tarik Azille-Moore played him through, leaving the young defender to cut in and hit a powerful shot to the near post where Connor Weaking got down low to make the stop before a team-mate hoofed it clear.

Right-back Ivor Lawton was also dangerous on the overlap while the impressive box-to-box midfielder Leon Lobjoit arced an effort narrowly over and Garner placed another chance wide.

The visitors hit back briefly just before the break with two shots from Scott Yran that fizzed the wrong side of the post, but got a life-line back into the game a minute into the second half when full-back George Carpenter converted from close range from a ball in from the left.

However, any thoughts that The Shrews would make a game of the tie appeared to evaporate when unmarked skipper Ricky Fletcher thumped the ball in off the keeper from a 57th-minute corner.

Striker Courtney Baker-Richardson then helped extend the lead five minutes later when he beat the off-side trap and hit a rasping shot which the keeper parried into the path of back-pedalling defender Domonic Smith who bundled it into his own net to make it 4-1.

But no sooner had the game restarted than Town pulled another goal back when the busy Yran fired low into the bottom corner from the edge of the area.

And although the visitors always looked vulnerable to the counter-attack as they threw bodies forward, their persistence and never-say-die spirit paid off again when substitute Kaiman Anderson rounded Shane Fagan in the City goal and slotted home in the 89th minute to set up a tense end to a game that should really have been put beyond doubt much earlier.